At 10:22am on February 1, 2009, John Ortlund said…
Jim,
I am a Lt. with Park Ridge FD on your north border. I am writing a company officer development program for my masters program and look to inplement it at my dept. Does Chicago have a company officer development program? Can I look at a copy if you have one. Do you have information about any other departments officer programs. I appreciate your input. Be safe. John Ortlund, jortlund113@comcast.net
You asked about officer development also, Well we dont really do much of that. We have started to do officer training every month. Something that the officer has to turn in. It is so-so. But other than that not much really. And for ff's becoming officer they just ride in the seat for awhile before they get promoted. We do not have much as far as formalized officer development.
We get usually 15-20 on a first alarm (well 16 if you count the chief). We used to have 2 engines, 2 trucks and the squad. All usually with 3 on each rig so it is typically closer to 15 than 20. We just changed our responses and shuttered our squad and going to 2 trucks instead of 3 trucks in the city. Now we get 4 engines and 1 truck on a first alarm. Same amount of personnel.
Jim, Jerry is from Rockland Co In New York. He has written articles for Fire Engineering. He helps with the engine company class at FDIC streatching attack lines. Very good class.
Jim, Crawfordsville is a small career department about 40 west of Indy. On or 1st due we will get 2 engines, 1 ladder and a medic. Also I will be at FDIC, for the last 3 years I have been helping instruct a portion of the Engine company class with Jay Comella and Jerry Knapp. I hope to meet up with everyone during FDIC do you have a certain place in mind? Anyway i look forward in picking your brain.
Stay Low
Nate
Yes I started on Peotone 13 years ago asd still moonlight their as a Lt. I've been on Bedford since 01. Jim Wilk turned me on to your group. You may know my Uncle Tom Sutkus Capt. on T-32.
Jim,
Little Elm if about 40 miles north of Dallas, Texas. We are a 2 station department with 10 paid per shift and 4 volunteers that alternate every six days. Our challange is not that we are combition but that we have minimal staffing. On first alarm (if at full staffing) we send 2 medics, 75' ariel, 1 engine and on duty chief. We have mutual aid agreement with all surrounding department and will received 2-3 additional engine on a confirmed fire. Our challenge is that for the first 6 to 12 minutes of the fire our department is on our own. We've cut down some response times with automatic aid agreements but still is an issue for us.
At 11:10am on January 17, 2009, Chuck French said…
If you’re referring to the number of working fires we get; the amount of fires we get as a department and specifically as a crew, varies greatly of course depending on the location and demographics.
We have twenty stations with over 400 firefighters serving a population of over 400,000. Being of medium size and not a major metropolitan city I suppose we’re not much different than other cities our size. As a department we get 45,000 calls a year but you know how it goes; most of those are non-fire. I should also state we are spread out over 250 squre miles.
I work downtown; lately we have been busy but prior to that, months went by since we had a worker. So it kind of goes like this; 75% of training is fire/ rescue related but 75% of day spent performing non-fire activities…Les
Jim,
Us being volunteer staffing is usually unknown, but generally about 4 in the first out piece. Auto aid we have 3 Tenders, 2 engines, 1 medic coming in. We recieve 1 engine and a 1 tender change of quarters.
Anything larger then a single family dwelling gets what we call a commercial alarm: 4-Engines, 2-Ladders, Heavy Rescue and two Chiefs and if a brush pumper or Heavy tanker is housed with any of the Engines, they respond too.
A High-Rise (Anything 5-stories or taller) gets a High-Rise Response: 10-Engines, 5-Ladders, Heavy Rescue, Haz-Mat, 4-Chiefs. Seems large but that basically gets a primary line, back up line, Search on two floors, and RAT's (Rapid Ascent Teams), oh and also Lobby Control established.
We do have High-Rise in OKC. Around 100, give or take a few.
We have a six week officer academy that one must go through prior to performing as an acting officer. I believe it's required in order to even sign up for the Lt. test. But don't quote me on that.
As an officer we attend on-going officer development classes once a quarter. The subject matters range from personnel issues, fireground stuff or misc. hot topic items of pressing issues. The classes run about three hours and they are given by our on-duty district chiefs. The size of the class is six to eight.
Informally the district chiefs group will assign an new officer to a double company house that has an experienced officer. To do the "mentor thing".
There has been talk of changing the minimum time on the job to take the Lt. test from five to ten years. I'm not on the committee so I don't know if that was serious talk or if it has stalled.
Lastly, on has to have an associates degree in order to test for officer.
I know a couple guys from Denver FD and have met some other guys at our quarterly Fire Nuggets classes that are sponsered by Denver FD and attended by folks from all over, some by South Metro...Les
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I am a Lt. with Park Ridge FD on your north border. I am writing a company officer development program for my masters program and look to inplement it at my dept. Does Chicago have a company officer development program? Can I look at a copy if you have one. Do you have information about any other departments officer programs. I appreciate your input. Be safe. John Ortlund, jortlund113@comcast.net
We get usually 15-20 on a first alarm (well 16 if you count the chief). We used to have 2 engines, 2 trucks and the squad. All usually with 3 on each rig so it is typically closer to 15 than 20. We just changed our responses and shuttered our squad and going to 2 trucks instead of 3 trucks in the city. Now we get 4 engines and 1 truck on a first alarm. Same amount of personnel.
Stay Low
Nate
Little Elm if about 40 miles north of Dallas, Texas. We are a 2 station department with 10 paid per shift and 4 volunteers that alternate every six days. Our challange is not that we are combition but that we have minimal staffing. On first alarm (if at full staffing) we send 2 medics, 75' ariel, 1 engine and on duty chief. We have mutual aid agreement with all surrounding department and will received 2-3 additional engine on a confirmed fire. Our challenge is that for the first 6 to 12 minutes of the fire our department is on our own. We've cut down some response times with automatic aid agreements but still is an issue for us.
http://www.olkee.smugmug.com/
Actually, we modeled our High Rise SOP closely from Chicago's. We're in the middle of training the department now.
If you’re referring to the number of working fires we get; the amount of fires we get as a department and specifically as a crew, varies greatly of course depending on the location and demographics.
We have twenty stations with over 400 firefighters serving a population of over 400,000. Being of medium size and not a major metropolitan city I suppose we’re not much different than other cities our size. As a department we get 45,000 calls a year but you know how it goes; most of those are non-fire. I should also state we are spread out over 250 squre miles.
I work downtown; lately we have been busy but prior to that, months went by since we had a worker. So it kind of goes like this; 75% of training is fire/ rescue related but 75% of day spent performing non-fire activities…Les
Us being volunteer staffing is usually unknown, but generally about 4 in the first out piece. Auto aid we have 3 Tenders, 2 engines, 1 medic coming in. We recieve 1 engine and a 1 tender change of quarters.
Anything past this we utilize MABAS.
Cheers,
Rob
Anything larger then a single family dwelling gets what we call a commercial alarm: 4-Engines, 2-Ladders, Heavy Rescue and two Chiefs and if a brush pumper or Heavy tanker is housed with any of the Engines, they respond too.
A High-Rise (Anything 5-stories or taller) gets a High-Rise Response: 10-Engines, 5-Ladders, Heavy Rescue, Haz-Mat, 4-Chiefs. Seems large but that basically gets a primary line, back up line, Search on two floors, and RAT's (Rapid Ascent Teams), oh and also Lobby Control established.
We do have High-Rise in OKC. Around 100, give or take a few.
Thanks for the thanks.
We have a six week officer academy that one must go through prior to performing as an acting officer. I believe it's required in order to even sign up for the Lt. test. But don't quote me on that.
As an officer we attend on-going officer development classes once a quarter. The subject matters range from personnel issues, fireground stuff or misc. hot topic items of pressing issues. The classes run about three hours and they are given by our on-duty district chiefs. The size of the class is six to eight.
Informally the district chiefs group will assign an new officer to a double company house that has an experienced officer. To do the "mentor thing".
There has been talk of changing the minimum time on the job to take the Lt. test from five to ten years. I'm not on the committee so I don't know if that was serious talk or if it has stalled.
Lastly, on has to have an associates degree in order to test for officer.
I know a couple guys from Denver FD and have met some other guys at our quarterly Fire Nuggets classes that are sponsered by Denver FD and attended by folks from all over, some by South Metro...Les
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